Chapter III.
REMEMBERING SLAVERY
THE BOOK
Reading Session 2:
II. "Work and Slave Life: 'From Can to Can't'"
PREVIEW:
This section of the book documents the various forms of labor required
of slaves. As the chapter introduction notes, work was both "a source of
oppression and a seed of liberation," as many slaves managed to take pride
and satisfaction in their duties and, in some cases, learn important skills and
trades they used to their own benefit.
Before reading this chapter, take some time to think, write, and talk
about:
- The role of work in your life. Take about 5 to 10 minutes to
"freewrite" about whatever kinds of work you currently do on a regular basis.
Consider all of the forms of work in which you are involved (ie. at a job,
homework, housework, volunteer work). What are your specific duties? What
are the consequences for you and for others if you fail to live up to them?
Who benefits from your work? How are you compensated? What about your
work, if anything, gives you pride or satisfaction? What do you find, if
anything, arduous or demeaning? Try to roughly calculate how much of each
day, week, and year you spend at some form of work.
READING GOAL:
The chapter indicates the variety of forms of work that slaves actually
undertook, including field work, domestic work, and skilled trades. As you read
the interviews in the narrative, try to identify and list the slaves' many jobs,
labors, and duties you come across in the chapter. Try to be as specific as
possible; for example, note that doing field work itself consisted of a variety of
specific duties.
SELECTED READINGS:
If you cannot read the entire chapter, reading these
particular interviews and narratives will provide an overview of the issues and
topics addressed in the chapter as a whole.
- George Fleming: Provides an overview of slaves' many duties on the large
South Carolina plantation on which he worked.
- Anne Clark: Recalls with pride the work she did, "as well as any man."
- Emma Knight: Describes the work she and her sisters did as children.
- Ebenezer Brown: Remembers how he and other children assumed their
places in the plantation work force.
- Marie Askin: Recounts her duties as a house slave.
- Ella Wilson: Remembers being ordered to work in the fields after being
accustomed only to domestic chores -- and being punished for her
performance.
- Mildred Graves: Tells of how she put her skills as a healer to use, even
helping a white mistress in defiance of the skeptical white doctors.
- Sarah Wilson: Describes how her proficiency at sewing gave her special
standing and recalls the first time, when she was freed, she purchases
something with her own money.
- Octavia George: Describes how she and her fellow slaves worked their own
crops on Sundays, and what these efforts meant to them.
FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS:
- In what ways did slaves find to draw satisfaction and pride from their
work? How, as the chapter introduction notes, did this affirm the slaves'
humanity and "counter the owners' assertion of the slaves' natural and
irredeemable inferiority"?
- How much of the slaves' waking hours were spent working for their
owners? How much of their work was for their own benefit? How much
served others?
- What kinds of work was expected of children and teenagers? How
were they trained in whatever labors or duties were expected of them? Why
were many forbidden from playing with one another even when not at work?
How did life for slave children differ from that of the adults?
- How was life different for those working in the fields as opposed to
the domestic laborers and skilled artisans and tradesmen?
- How did slaves make these grueling labors endurable?
- How did the masters, overseers, and drivers ensure that the strict
regiment was kept by the slaves? What incentives and punishments were
used?
- Why might the owners have turned over supervisory duties to
overseers and drivers? What, according to the words of the former slaves,
separated a "good" overseer from a "bad" one?
- How much "time off" was given to the slaves? How did they spend it?
- What were the physical demands made of slaves by their duties?
What were the emotional and psychological demands?
- How did some slaves manage to learn certain skills and trades, and in
some cases earn money or garner material goods and property, even in these
adverse conditions?
- What is the special satisfaction of working for something that benefits
yourself and those close to you? How does that differ from working solely for
others, without any compensation, as was expected of the slaves?
ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES:
- Sarah Wilson describes the first time, as a free person, she bought an
object with her own money. Write an essay, short story, or poem in which you
imagine her thoughts as she is in the store selecting the item and purchasing
it. Why is this such a momentous time in her life?
- Interview someone about what kind of work they do. Try to assess
the attitude with which this person approaches his or her various duties. What
serves as a source of pride and satisfaction, and what is viewed as an arduous
chore?
- If possible, take a trip somewhere where you might observe someone
involved in one of the labors or duties described in this chapter (you might visit
a working farm to observe things like plowing and harvesting crops, or a
colonial village or arts festival to witness craft-making such as weaving,
blowing glass, or forging silver). Create a step-by-step list of the various
stages in this particular job or trade.
- If you have the opportunity, visit and tour a Southern plantation and
observe the slaves' working and living conditions. How does seeing an actual
plantation inform your understanding of the ways former slaves described their
daily lives?
TOPICS FOR FURTHER STUDY:
- History of Agricultural and Farming Techniques
- The Cotton Revolution
- Life and Work on Southern Plantations
- Traditional American Crafts and Trades